Bio | Ayesha Green
Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu
Born 1987
Lives and works in Ōtepoti Dunedin, NZ
“In her studio-based practice, Ayesha Green sustains a provocative engagement with processes of reproduction. By her own admission, Green utilises mimicry and copying to undermine the authority of symbolic objects, questioning the authenticity of their claims to power. While giving precedence to source material from the era of first contact between Māori and Pakēha, Green continues to draw on a wide range of references. Attempting to transmute the power of inherited objects and images by establishing new reading’s, Green thus pushes back at European-centric practices of anthropology and classification, and the demonstrable military and cultural domination of our shared colonial history.”
Elle Loui August, Matters Art Journal Aotearoa: Issue 8 (2018)
Ayesha Green (Kai Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu) is an artist based in Ōtepoti. She graduated with a Bachelor of Media Arts from Wintec in 2009 and went on to complete a Master of Fine Arts from Elam in 2013. In 2016 she completed a Graduate Diploma in Arts specalising in Museums and Cultural Heritage. In August 2019 she was announced the winner of the National Contemporary Art Awards, judged by Fiona Pardington and hosted by the Waikato Museum. Recent exhibitions include: Strands, The Dowse Art Museum (2019); Tuia - Southern Encounters, The Hocken Gallery (2019); Elizabeth the First, Jhana Millers (2019); Living Portraits: Mata Raurangi, Auckland Art Gallery (2019); Two Oceans at Once, ST Paul St Gallery (2019). She is currently on the Board of Trustees for The Blue Oyster Art Project Space and is a member of Paemanu, Ngai Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts Collective.
Education
GradDipArt, Specialising in Museums and Cultural Heritage, University of Auckland, 2016
MFA, Elam School of Fine Arts, UoA, 2014
PGDipFA, Elam School of Fine Arts, UoA, 2013
BMA, Waikato Institute of Technology, 2009
Selected exhibitions
2019
Strands, The Dowse Art Musuem, Lower Hutt
Tuia - Southern Encounters, The Hocken Gallery
National Contemporary Art Awards, Waikato Museum, Hamilton
Elizabeth the First, Jhana Millers Gallery, Wellington
You Had Fun Experience, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland
Living Portraits: Mata Raurangi, Auckland Art Gallery
Modern People, NZ Portrait Gallery, Wellington
Two Oceans at Once, ST Paul St Gallery, Auckland
2018
Māori Girl, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Dunedin
EAST 2018, Hastings City Art Gallery
(Un)Conditional Series, The Melbourne Art Fair, The Suter Gallery, The Physics Room
Alma Venus, Corbans Estate Art Centre, Auckland
2017
Here and Now, Malcolm Smith Gallery, Auckland
Summa Pete, Papakura Art Gallery, Auckland
The Spirit of the Thing Given, RM Gallery Auckland
Biographies of Transition: Too Busy to Think, ArtSpace, Auckland
On The Grounds, Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland
Scholarships/Awards/Residencies
2019 Winner, the National Contemporary Art Awards
Blue Oyster Winter Residency, December 2018
Te Arerenga Residency, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, July 2017
Finalist in the New Zealand Paint and Printmaking Awards 2017
Seagers Walters, Mirage Gallery (Winner), 2016
Finalist in the New Zealand Paint and Printmaking Awards 2013
Collections
The Dowse Art Museum
The Stevenson Collection
Wallace Arts Trust
St Johns Theological College
Selected Reviews/Essays
Arts News New Zealand, Summer 2019. Text by Lucy Jackson
Art Collector, Issue 89, 2019. Text by Francis McWhannell
Hamster, Issue 4, May 2019. Text by Tia Pohatu
Art New Zealand, Issue 169, Autumn 2019. Text by Edward Hanfling
Matters Aotearoa, Issue 8, 2019. Text by Elle Loui
Art Collector, Issue 84, April 2018. Text by Lucinda Bennett
ArtZone, Issue 70, July 2017. Text by Lily Hacking